The Army are planning to cut its number of front line tanks by up to a third, leaving Britain with fewer than Serbia, Russia and only a few more than Switzerland.

As MailOnline reported earlier this month hundreds of Ajax mini-tanks are due to be supplied to the Army next year with the full order of 600 delivered to the Ministry of Defence by 2024 costing around £3.5billion.

The Ajax armoured vehicles will travel at speeds of up to 40mph and have been touted as the first ever fully digital armoured fighting vehicle in UK military history.

The Army are planning to cut its number of the Challenger 2 (pictured) as Ajax armoured vehicles are introduced

All you need to know about the Ajax (pictured) which has a top speed of 44 miles per hour

But according to The Sunday Times for one of the army’s three tank regiments, the Ajax will replace all of its 56 Challenger 2s.

The cut would mean the army’s total number of Challenger 2 tanks would be reduced from 227 to about 170. Whilst Germany has 306 main battle tanks, France 200, Poland 971, Romania 437, Russia 2,700 and Serbia 212.

The plans come as Russia also announced a new generation of take the T-14 Armata leaving some people concerned.